Louis Tomlinson’s Skate Prop Or New Job? Element Skateboard May Be A Clue

One Direction fans are worried that Louis Tomlinson and the gents may be splitting up — but could Louis Tomlinson already be making a career change that involves skateboarding? Or is he just another celebrity holding a brand new skateboard?

Louis Tomlinson was recently seen holding an Element skateboard at the LAX airport around June 29 — without his new 1D best friend, Niall Horan.

Interestingly, when the Mirror U.K. covered Louis Tomlinson at the Los Angeles airport on June 29, they described his clothing in full detail — but did not mention the company name of the skateboard he was carrying.

Was this skateboard that Louis Tomlinson was holding an important clue about his future career that fans have overlooked? Or is Louis Tomlinson just another skateboarding fan in Los Angeles for a preview of the 2015 Street League Skateboarding finals kick off?

Amateur skateboarding is still extremely popular across the world, and skate parks are opening up on a regular basis in places like Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Daytona Beach, Florida. Like their fans, celebrities are catching on to how much fun skateboarding is. For instance, Lil Wayne and Justin Bieber have been showing fans that they love skateboarding.

But does Louis Tomlinson also have a flair for skateboarding? Or does Louis Tomlinson just have a great skateboarding tattoo?

After all, the Ride Channel points out on June 29 that the skateboard Louis Tomlinson was carrying at LAX has new wheels, trucks — and has basically never been ridden.

Could this skateboard be a prop for Louis Tomlinson so he looks cool? Or maybe it was a gift that Element Skateboards sent to Louis Tomlinson because they want to offer him a new job?

Adding to the idea that Louis Tomlinson might have a place in new skateboarding business schemes, Element Skateboards, one of the oldest companies in the sport, has been changing the way it does business.

On top of that, they are showing the media new ways someone like Louis Tomlinson can jump onboard. As it appears, whether or not he went to Los Angeles with Element Skateboards in mind, Louis Tomlinson would be a great asset to this company — on multiple levels.

For instance, on July 14, 2014, the founder and owner of Element Skateboards, Johnny Schillereff, stated to Transworld Business the company vision which included a description of their Costa Mesa, California headquarters.

Called The Branch, Schillereff describes it as a, “… platform for Element that encompasses the brand’s vision from day one, and includes a farmers market, skate park, and an open, collaborative work environment that encourages creativity.”

A place that encourages collaborative creativity? That sounds like a good place for Louis Tomlinson to be as a musician. Other supporting details that give Element Skateboards a reason to ask Louis Tomlinson to join their team include a business restructuring that took place in October 2014 at Element with a focus on “global expansion.”

So far, the global expansion idea that Element Skateboards had in mind includes setting up a shop in the U.K. — where Louis Tomlinson resides. There, they are expanding their merchandise to include fashion as much as skateboards.

In August 2014, Fashion United U.K. stated, “Skateboard-inspired clothing and footwear brand Element is to open its first standalone store in the UK at London’s Seven Dials in Covent Garden. Opening in December, the Element flagship… will house the brand’s full range of endorsed clothing, accessories, skateboards, and footwear for men, women and children.”

Could Louis Tomlinson be a model for the fashion Element Skateboards is trying to produce? Samantha Bain-Mollison adds to this by stating “Element is a very exciting addition to Seven Dials’ array of international brands, and is consistent with our strategy of securing the very best mix of cosmopolitan fashion, lifestyle and design icons.”

Tying it all together, a public relations company that started working with Element Skateboards in 2010 recently published direct clues that gives Louis Tomlinson fans an idea of why they would want to get him involved with their skateboards — and fashion is a big part of it.

AZIONE stated on June 23 to Transworld Skateboarding, “[Fashion magazine] editors who had previously rejected certain brands because they were labeled ‘too skateboard or surf’ were suddenly making consistent requests as if these brands were showing at Fashion Week.”

Although it seems that Louis Tomlinson would be the perfect match for this new expansion plan for Element Skateboards as a fashion model, does he actually like skateboarding?

As it turns out, Louis Tomlinson might not be joining a pro-skateboarding team anytime soon, but he is hardly a fraud holding a new deck that will never be ridden.

In fact, a quick search online shows that Louis Tomlinson has a long history of mixing One Direction and skateboarding. For example, on several instances over 2012 to the present, Louis Tomlinson has picked up his board for street skating.

But is Louis Tomlinson being a part of a boy band a good thing to tie to skateboarding? Obviously, as someone popular with young girls and women, Louis Tomlinson would be a great addition to any company that focused on obtaining females as a client — but do women and girls like skateboarding?

According to the headlines, there is a new revolution in skateboarding that has a big focus on Louis Tomlinson’s fan base — teenage girls.

For example, Australian skateboarding fans have been working hard to fund Skateistan — a skateboarding charity for girls in Afghanistan. The Guardian U.K. states on April 19, “These girls remind us all of how even something as simple an hour of skating can be a highly liberating act. It’s funny how a skateboard can become such an evocative symbol.”

Supporting that idea of girls and women skateboarding as being something to encourage, the National Student recently wrote on June 15 that there is a “renaissance of women in skateboarding.”

Within the article, they discuss that, despite this surge in female skaters, it is clear that the skateboarding industry needs an overhaul. Could introducing a public figure like Louis Tomlinson help soften skateboarding’s image?

National Student reports, “Today however, saying that the skate industry is a boys club is an understatement. Dani Abullawah, a skater as well as an academic who wrote a study about the place girls occupy in the subculture, states that girls do not feel particularly welcome in the competitive environment of skateparks.”

Will more females start skateboarding if Louis Tomlinson is at the gate of the skatepark to welcome them? In the end, fans may never know if Louis Tomlinson was in Los Angeles around June 30 to talk to Element Skateboards — but there is clearly a place at Element Skateboards for Louis Tomlinson (in the opinion of this author).